The Buccaneer Pick of the Month

The Buccaneer
Pick of the Month

A 1966 first edition of Kip Wagners book

In 1966 Kip Wagner, with the help of L.B.Taylor, wrote Pieces of Eight which
became one of the best classic treasure salvage tales. Wagner describes how he first
thought the encrusted silver coins were odd shaped shells and tossed them back into the
sea. Sometimes he even found them to be easy candidates to skip along the ocean surface.
When he realized what they were he began picking them up from the shoreline. Later
investing in a metal detector, he began searching the area around his summer home on
Vero Beach and found hundreds of these shipwreck coins. He then went on further
to search the surrounding offshore water realizing that they must have come from a local
shipwreck of Spanish origin being that the coins bore the Spanish coat of arms. The find came
at a time when these coins were relatively unknown and unpopular. They did not have a specific
market. In fact there were no books dedicated to these types of coins. They were essentialy
forgotten coinage preserved in the timecapsile of a sunken Spanish Treasure ship that ended in
tragedy on the reefs of the Florida gold coast.

Title page with a Royal as the frontispiece

The frontispiece is a gold imperial eight-escudo coin. This beautiful coin is extremely rare
and maintains great importance among the numismatic community. Pieces of Eight tells the story
of how Kip Wagner and a group of treasure salvors teamed to excavate this wreck and others
that suffered a similar fate. A project that would begin the moderization of underwater archeology
and treasure hunting.

Gold jewlery recovered by the Real Eight divers

The book contains various images of artifacts found by Wagner and the salvage team. Some of
which are priceless glimpses into the past. It is the first book dedicated to the loss of the 1715
Spanish Plate fleet.

Archaelogical chart of the remains of the wreck

Sketched diagrams and charts map out the remains of the sunken treasure ship which
is the source for the silver and gold bullion. Among the finds are cannon, ballast, timber and
human artifacts such as jewelery, weapons and cutlery.

The Real Eight team

Throughout the 222pages, Pieces of Eight tells a story of adventure and true treasure
hunting. Early tools and methods are discussed using photos and diagrams. Included are 24 pages
with 20 color and 14 black and white photos. There is a one full-page map in text along with
5 plans & several diagrams and charts. A classic among treasure hunting libraries.

Click for available copies of this book.